Is Sara Interesting?: The one in which I am still emotional over

It's been a little over two weeks since that little thing called our election happened. My election night tale, from across the pond, included a lot of crying. Which should come as absolutely no shock to anyone who knows me. After all, some claim, I once cried during a Sally Jesse Raphael show. To that I answer: I plead the Fifth.

I cried a lot on this election day, finally out of happiness and not disappointment. I cried because the beauty of all those very different looking people from across the country coming together in Chicago, Atlanta, New York, and all those other places I didn't see, to celebrate what I can only describe as a Super Bowl win for the whole country. I cried because the country made history in the best kind of way, by doing something that seemed impossible before this night. I cried when I saw all those people waiting to vote and wanting to actually be part of something, and I cried when thinking about how important youth (which, according to who you ask, I may or may not still be part of) were, and how engaged they became. I especially cried when looking at those Kenyan people, who truly live in a different world than most of us in the so-called developed world do, and their jubilation at the role their country played in making this president, and I cried at the symbolism, because I always cry at symbolism, of those two countries, Kenya and U.S., working together to make a president. I cried when looking at that beautiful new first family, because what has always made America the "land of opportunity" is this idea that all can be American, despite background, wealth, or color, and at least at this moment, that felt true.

I cried because in 1998 one of my college professors asked how many of us thought a woman would be president in our lifetime, and about two of us (including me) raised our hands. And while a woman didn't win this time, I believe it will happen in my lifetime. Because in the lifetime of my parents and grandparents, Black people were systematically kept from voting, and now a person who would have been kept from voting is president. And while racism is most certainly not dead, it did sustain a blow that will hopefully one day lead to its death. I hope that there are little kids out there from households in America that are a little different from our own, who believe they too can be president one day, even if they are Muslim, or gay, or marginalized in other ways. And I will know that racism, and its twin, intolerance, really are on death's doorstep when that little kid becomes president in 2048, and we can point to 2008 when things began to change.

I cried at John McCain's speech, which was gracious and humble, and I was reminded why I once liked him. And I cried during Obama's speech, especially at the part where he talked about humility, because we all could stand to be a bit more humble in our lives.

I know there is much work to do in the country, and that one man can not fix it all. Expectations are exceedingly high, and I suspect it will take exactly one week from inauguration for the punditry to began in on all he is doing wrong, and I will know life is just where it should be. But right now, I'm focusing on the moment, and the joy of it.

Here are two videos, the first is of the coverage on the BBC that I watched, calling the race (and I am sorry the video is so bad, but for some reason this is all I could find). I doubt I will ever be able to watch this clip without crying for the rest of my life. The second, from Obama's speech, reaching out to those that didn't vote for him. It so markedly different from talk of political capital to spend, and I hope for all those that didn't vote for Obama, it helped assure them that he wants to work for you too, since, as he famously once said, there is not a Red America or a Blue America, just a United States of America.

Video 1: